Mandoo Bar is in New York City’s Manhattan Korea Town and serves Korean style dumplings and a quite a few other Korean dishes – the selection of non-dumpling offerings seems to be growing.  The dumpling making station is in the front of the restaurant and from the street you can look through the front window and watch the dumplings being made fresh, by hand.  There is also an open kitchen area that you can see as you enter the restaurant where the dumplings are steamed or pan fried.  The place is usually pretty packed, especially around lunch and dinner time.  You used to be able to get bags of 50 frozen dumplings to go, but they seem to have stopped selling these.

The Dumplings:  Mandoo Bar makes a wide variety of dumplings, pretty much all of which I like a lot.  As a vegan, my wife is a little less excited about this spot,  – not the best vegetable dumplings in New York City.  The dumpling wrapper dough is also a little sweet.

They serve:

• Mool Mandoo: pork and vegetables, boiled.
• Vegetable Mool Mandoo:  mixed vegetables, boiled.
• Baby Mandoo: bite size pork and veg, boiled.
• Kimchee Mandoo:  kimchee, tofu, pork and other vegetables, steamed.
• Goon Mandoo: pork and vegetables, lightly pan-fried.
• Vegetable Goon Mandoo: mixed vegetables, lightly pan-fried.
• Seafood Mandoo: shrimps, crabsticks and vegetables, boiled.

The open kitchen at Mandoo Bar

The Dipping Sauce:  Bottles of soy sauce, vinegar and spicy sauce on the table.  Mix to taste.

Location:  Mandoo Bar is on 32nd street, between Broadway and 5th avenue, closer to 5th, on the south side of the street.  Look for the ladies making dumplings in the front window.  There is also an outpost in Palisades Park, NJ (476 Bergen Blvd, Palisades Park NJ).